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I. Name As used in Dan. 11.38, the ‘god of fortresses’ (מעזים אלה) has been treated in the Greek Theodotion and in the Vulgate translation of the book of Daniel as a divine name (θεὸς μαωζιν respectively deus Maozim). This name has ever since been equated with a variety of Semitic, Greek or Roman deities. II. Identity Jerome already mentions in his commentary on Dan ( Dan. 11.31; GLAJJ 2, 469) Porphyry, who “offered an absurd explanation” of the god Maozim. For the latter asserted that the generals of Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’, ruler of the Seleucid empire, set …

I. Name Baal-berith (‘Baal of the Covenant’; Judg. 8.33 and Judg. 9.4) and El-berith (‘El of the Covenant; Judg. 9.46) occur only in the Book of Judges as specifications of the Canaanite fertility gods Baal and El of Shechem, an ancient Canaanite city in the hill country between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Also in Ugaritic texts brt (‘covenant’) is found in connection with Baal. II. Identity In the OT Shechem is often mentioned. Already in Gen. 12.6–7 we are told that Abram went as far in Canaan as the sanctuary at Shechem, and the terebinth tree of Moreh, and that he built there an altar “to the Lo…

I. Name Carmel (Jebel Kurmul) is a promontory on the Mediterranean Coast of Israel near Haifa which since ancient times was considered as ‘holy’. A deity was worshipped there whose name occurs outside the Bible as “god of the Carmel”. In the OT Mount Carmel is known especially as scene of a trial of strength between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, or rather, between Baal and Yahweh (1 Kgs. 18). II. Identity The ‘holiness’ of the Carmel may already have been mentioned in the listing of countries and cities of the conquering Pharaoh Thutmoses III in the second millennium (about 1490–1436 bce) by …